Norristown man to receive treatment for drug addiction in prison

COURTHOUSE—A Norristown man who pleaded guilty in April to ramming his car into the front of a police SUV to escape arrest for drug possession will get treatment for his drug addiction while spending time in a state prison.

Derrick Archer, 41, of Norristown, will undergo drug treatment at State Correctional Institute Chester. Judge Carolyn Carluccio sentenced Archer to one to two years in the state prison on Monday and wrote down on the sentencing sheet that he serve his sentence at SCI Chester because of the drug program there. When Archer is paroled, he will have to go to an intensive outpatient program to further help him with his addiction.

Carluccio sentenced Archer to one year of probation following his parole for resisting arrest.

“If you’re ever going to be saved, it’s now,” Carluccio said. “I’m going to wish you a lot of luck.”

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During allocution Archer said he hoped he can take the opportunity to turn his life around and apologized for his past actions.

“I know I shouldn’t have been doing those things I’ve been doing,” Archer said. “I just want to really change my life.”

In court, defense attorney John McMahon argued that despite pleading guilty to possession with intent to deliver in April, when police arrested Archer he only had approximately $180 of crack cocaine on him. McMahon argued that there was no indication Archer was actively selling drugs for a profit. He said that when he was arrested he planned to get high with a few friends.

McMahon argued that more than anything, Archer needed treatment.

“His criminal conduct has always been drug related,” McMahon said. “This is somebody who is need of treatment.”

McMahon stated that since Archer was last in prison nearly a decade ago he has been gainfully employed and has been able to make child support payments towards his two children.

Prosecuting attorney Jeremy Lupo, however, argued for the state sentence, saying the facts of the case “scream of a state sentence.”

Lupo said that when Archer was arrested, police found more than $1,000 in cash and did not see any drug paraphernalia that would indicate he was just going to get high.

He also said that Archer has been arrested twice before for possession with intent to deliver and twice for resisting arrest. Lupo, however, did agree that Archer should serve his time at SCI Chester because of the facility’s drug rehabilitation program.

Archer will begin serving his sentence on Aug. 18.

On April 5, 2013, Archer and Kyree Stevenson, 22, of Norristown were seen by police leaving the Riverside Apartments in an Audi A4. The arresting affidavit states that Stevenson had an active arrest warrant against him for his alleged involvement in a series of armed robberies. Archer was driving the car and Stevenson was sitting in the front passenger seat.

When Archer noticed that police were following him and saw a police car was blocking the exit of Schuylkill Avenue, he backed up, crashing into an unmarked police SUV in an attempt to escape.

Before Archer was arrested, police noticed he was trying to hide something under the driver’s seat of the car. Police later found a bag with several small packets of crack cocaine underneath the driver’s seat of the car. Police also found $1,195 in cash on Archer.

When police took Archer into the police station to be processed, he said his name was Tracy Lanier, despite giving the name Derrick Archer to police on several previous occasions. Even after police told him he was a part of an official police investigation, Archer continued to say that his name was Tracy Lainer.